1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a treadmill device, and more particularly to an innovative one which is designed to adjust the stride with satisfactory driving performance.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
A treadmill is structurally designed in a way that the left/right foot levers are linked to the drag wheel via a driving mechanism. When the left and right foot levers move vertically along with the left and right pedals, the drag wheel is driven to rotate for proper drag effect in combination with a preset resistance device (e.g.: magnetic).
According to the treadmills currently available, the driving mechanism set between left/right foot levers and the drag wheel is steel rope-operated. However, the following shortcomings are observed during actual applications:
The steel rope-operated model is restricted by its gravity drive structure, so a two-stage drive pattern must be designed to reach the desired gravity state. Yet, this will likely lead to higher cost and bigger difficulty in assembly as well as other shortcomings such as: a slippery belt, falling-off, off-tracking, breakage or overturning.
The treading range (i.e. an included angle from maximum to minimum swinging angle of the pedal) of conventional treadmills' left and right pedals is fixed. Given various leg length of different users, the difficulty and comfort in treading may vary. In such a case, if users cannot adjust the actuating range of left and right pedals, the diversified users and their demands could not be met by conventional treadmills.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.
Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.